Opposition parties lambaste Netanyahu for ceasefire in Gaza

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu takes political hit for Gaza ceasefire

ANALYSIS

JERUSALEM — Just hours after a bomb exploded on a Tel Aviv bus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a truce with the very people his government blamed for the blast — the Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza.

Wednesday’s decision to pull back from the brink of a full-scale invasion of Gaza despite the attack, which wounded 27 people, belies Mr. Netanyahu’s international image as an uncompromising, bellicose hardliner.

Indeed, the eight-day campaign against Hamas in Gaza was the first major military operation he had ordered after seven years in power — a remarkable record in a country that has repeatedly gone to war in its 64-year history.

“People don’t realize that Netanyahu is trigger-unhappy,” said Ehud Yaari, an Israel-based fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“He is very cautious and very restrained. You could see that this past week. He set very well-defined boundaries and was very careful not to go wild.”

Opposition politicians were swift to portray this discretion as a failing, hoping that it will cost Mr. Netanyahu votes at a Jan. 22 general election, which all opinion polls prior to the Gaza conflict had said he would win.

“The government displayed weakness and hesitancy in implementing its goals and the promise of achieving complete calm for the residents of Israel,” said Yair Lapid, a television personality-turned-politician running in the January election.

Israeli daily Maariv also stuck the knife in, printing a cartoon showing a glum-looking Mr. Netanyahu carrying an object under his arm marked “backbone for rent.”

A group of 16 soldiers marked their disdain by writing out in Hebrew “Bibi Loser”, with their bodies and posting the photograph on Facebook. The image went viral and the army is investigating.

Despite the derision, it is unlikely the decision to avoid a potentially bloody land invasion of the densely populated Gaza Strip will cost Mr. Netanyahu the forthcoming election.

No opposition leader in the race comes close to Mr. Netanyahu in terms of experience or international stature, and Israel’s biggest perceived security threat is still far from resolved — Iran and its contested nuclear programme.

Israel and its Western allies believe Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies this, but Mr. Netanyahu says it is an existential issue for Israel and has promised to resolve the matter if he is elected.

Known universally in Israel by his childhood nickname “Bibi”, Mr. Netanyahu has been so focused on Iran that critics at home said he had lost sight of the more immediate problem — rising rocket fire out of Gaza and into southern Israel.

The Israeli military said Islamist terrorists had launched more than 700 missiles from Gaza in the first 10 months of the year. With elections looming, Mr. Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak could not ignore the problem any longer.

While Mr. Barak toured the Gaza border to see the huge army mobilization, Mr. Netanyahu avoided photo ops near the front line.

“This was deliberate. Netanyahu knew this would not end in the crushing defeat of Hamas because that wasn’t ever the goal. He wanted to pose as the responsible adult at the top of the pyramid,” Mr. Yaari said.

This stance is likely to have helped ease relations with the leaders of both the United States and Egypt.

There was no decisive victory here. But the situation was managed in the right way and it was clear that Israel enjoyed certain international support

Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to rule out an invasion prevented a potentially disastrous diplomatic showdown with Cairo. Instead, he has got Egyptian backing as a guarantor of Hamas’s ceasefire.

“There was no decisive victory here,” said Giora Eiland, a former National Security Advisor. “But the situation was managed in the right way and it was clear that Israel enjoyed certain international support.”